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Under Lock and Key
The clouds have built up over the ruined city of Atogakure. The rain taps gently against the skyscraper that Jitoku's organization is held in. Rumbles of thunder heard in the distance as bolts of lightning make contact with the ground. Jitoku herself sits at the front of the window, admiring the rain as it delivers a relentless downpour of water from the heavens. For the past few days, Jitoku has been sending out scouting parties to observe potential villages to take over and has been awaiting any form of response from the groups, but has heard nothing, which has caused her some concern. Breaking the stillness of silence is the opening of a door. Jitoku's assistant enters the room, a folder full of documents in her hand. "Please tell me you have news, and please be it good news." Jitoku speaks up, content at staring at the rain tapping against the window. "I won't make any promises." Honrui replies as she opens up the document. "I'll start with the good news, at the very least. A scouting party has informed me of a very important village, one that would provide great use to us. It's called the Jōmae Village, and its shinobi are all well versed in the art of espionage and reconnaissance, meaning if we can subjugate them to our cause, we'd have a powerful circle of spies at our disposal. The bad news is that the village has a history of not losing any of its shinobi to temptation. They're all trained to resist virtually any form of interrogation, be it physical or mental. They'd be more likely to kill themselves than offer any form of intelligence. I don't know how we're going to deal with that." Laying down photos of the village upon the oval table, Jitoku turns around and sits down at her chair, observing the photos. "What information do you have on Jōmae Village?" Jitoku asks, inspecting the photos Honrui drew from memory based on what she saw from the Jashinist's points of view. "It's a relatively old village residing within the Land of Keys. Their shinobi are renowned as excellent sources of information by providing crucial reconnaissance aid to the village. To make sure none of that information falls in enemy hands, they're trained to withstand all forms of interrogation, even mental ones like genjutsu. Many have tried to get information out of them, but never succeeded. We'll need to learn how to break them if we're going to subjugate them. They're not going to say anything otherwise." Honrui replies, handing Jitoku a written document of the village's size, population, military strength and economy. "We don't need to break them. We just need to persuade them, show them the benefits of becoming allies with us. We've got plenty going for us that we can use to persuade them, we just need to choose our words carefully and use that to our advantage. Because of their unwillingness to share information, they'd expect us to assault the village through force. They'd never expect us to use diplomacy to come to an agreement." Inspecting the document, Jitoku begins her planning. "If we show up with a sizable force, it may trick them into thinking we're going on the offensive, but at the same time, it could cause elevated levels of unease within the village. But if we show up with a few members, look like individuals who are just looking to strengthen some bonds between villages, we may be capable of persuading them to lend us a hand. Because they're neutral, we need to convince them that we have no intentions of changing their way of life, and that they can go on doing what they please. We do that, and we might just sway them a bit to get talks started." Getting up from her chair, Jitoku looks back at the rain once more, nodding her head slowly as she turns around and begins walking out the door, looking back at Honrui and tilting her head back to get her to come with her. Following behind, Honrui picks up her documents and a book to help keep the travel short. As the two leave the building, the rain had cleared out, leaving behind a cloudy sky and a cool breeze. Stepping upon the wet pavement, the two leave the village, making their way to the Land of Keys. The sun sits high in the sky as the leave the land Atogakure sits in, with the skyscrapers a mere dot in the distance. Honrui stays close, reading her book, looking up every now and then to make sure she's still going the right way. As the travel starts to get longer, the sun begins to sit in the horizon, the sky glowing with hues of dark blue and orange as the sun begins its dip down the horizon. Wishing to set up camp, Jitoku has Honrui take the backback off of her back and pull out some camping supplies to set up a resting spot. Taking her scythe, Honrui finds a nearby tree that had fell from a bolt of lightning and begins cutting it down for firewood. Splitting the logs, she sets them around in a circular pattern. Grabbing some tinder and other flammable material, she drops them over the logs before taking out a stone. Rubbing the stone against her scythe, the sparks off of the blade drop against the dry tinder, setting it alight. Blowing on the flames, the fire burns hot as it begins to engulf the logs. Setting her hands over the logs, Honrui helps keep herself warm before returning to her book, while Jitoku continues planning out what they're going to do once they make it to Jōmae Village. As Honrui stokes the flames, she takes out a pot. Seeing a nearby stream, she fills the pot with water and sets it over the flames. As the water begins to boil, Honrui takes out some provisions, MREs designed to be cooked quickly with water. As the food begins to cook, Honrui pulls out a scythe from her bag, reconnecting it together. "Took a long time to recover this thing, but we finally did it. We've got our symbol of hope. Had to do a lot of digging to find the source who kept this in his possession,, and had to relinquish something from my personal collection, but it was worth it." Honrui speaks up, looking at the scythe's three blades, colored red and black, with satisfaction. "You seem to have a close attachment to the scythe. If you ask me, it suits you. If anyone is worthy enough to carry on that scythe, it would be you, Honrui." Jitoku replies with a smile. She sees a lot of potential in her, and feels she made the right choice in making Honrui one of her Cardinals. Seeing the food finished, she takes the pot off of the fire. Grabbing some simple plates from Honrui's bag, Jitoku sets up their meals and they begin to eat. With the moon beginning to crest, the two finish their meals and begin setting up a tent to keep them warm. Putting out the fire, the two enter the tent, setting up sleeping bags and begin to rest for the night. As the night passes and the sun begins to crest from the horizon, the two wake up from their rest. Packing up their essentials, they continue out on their journey, heading west towards the Land of Keys. As the sun sits high in the sky, indicating midday, the two make it to the Land of Keys, where a scouting party of Jashinists await them.